Help Required Raven 1.8m motorised dish/polar mount instructions needed

There was a question mark.

Turing test, failed !
 
ArloG said:
The two illustrations hint if you are aimed at a particular satellite West or East of the initial setup at the exact elevation indicated in charts for a fixed dish.
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That seems very untrue, in this case, as there is no fixed dish here. The charts of a fixed dish are pretty useless for such a motorized setup with an offset dish. They would require rotated dish-offset calculations for target satellites, instead of simple elevation calculations.

ArloG said:
Questions asked from the manuals by folks like a33 are good. And deserve an answer.
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Indeed. But you gave no answer, just kautschuk.

I asked: What do these two pictures (non apex/zenith vertical dishface angles) mean/refer to?
And what are the curved lines from 65 to 92.5 for?
Does somebody have answers to that?


Channel Hopper said:
Page 9 onwards may be the same in this attachment.
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They are just skew, elevation, and azimuth charts. So not for motorized setups either....


Greetz,
A33
 
Here are the pages 9,10, 11

1000074762.webp
1000074763.webp
 
Ah!
So indeed, they are face angle charts for three specific satellites: Astra (19E, I assume), Intelsat VA F11 (??), and Satcom K2 (??).

I'm not sure yet how to interpret the curved lines, and the numbers associated with these lines....
 

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You are making this more difficult, than it needs to be.

The picture helps a lot, but it looks like your base is very slanted, which could be a big problem.

You do have some correction options, using the bolts, on your stand, to get everything plumb, but the angle looks quite severe, comparing it to the garage roof, in the background.
I would advise getting a strong, level, base, preferably concrete, to support your dish.

Once you have everything level, set everything to 0, motor LNB, Dish, then align your dish on your nearest True South, satellite, based on your longitude reading, probably 0.8W.

Then adjust your mounts to get the strongest signal, then send it to your furthest East, and West satellites, and check the signal qualities.

You can then send it back, to your starting satellite, make minor adjustments, to your dish/motor options, tune it again, to get the strongest signal, again, then try the furthest East/West satellites.

Keep making the alterations until you're happy with the results and check all the other satellites. The only problem is that, with such a large dish, some satellites are too strong, to make the correct adjustments, so either align it using some of the weaker satellites, or put a sheet/towel, over part of the dish, to limit the signal quality readings.

I would first sort out the base, for your satellite dish, as, in the picture, it looks way off level, and too flimsy.
 
marcouk said:
So if I understand correctly my pm should be set to around 53 degrees? if correct the I don't see how I would have enough thread on my dish plate to lower the dish so it would be on the arc.
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Is that polarmount designed to sleeve onto a 3" pole, or something larger ?
 
marcouk said:
So if I understand correctly my pm should be set to around 53 degrees? if correct the I don't see how I would have enough thread on my dish plate to lower the dish so it would be on the arc.
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Axis elevation angle looks to be around 30 degrees now, if the picture is not distorted by perspective.
Should be about 35.7 degrees, as I wrote earlier.

Dish declination angle comes after that, I wouldn't worry about the thread length yet.

Channel Hopper said:
Is that polarmount designed to sleeve onto a 3" pole, or something larger ?
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It looks to be solved with something blue?


BTW Is the non penetrating mount still un-bolted to the ground? Hope the wind is doesn't get hold of the dish!

Greetz,
A33
 
marcouk said:
So if I understand correctly my pm should be set to around 53 degrees? if correct the I don't see how I would have enough thread on my dish plate to lower the dish so it would be on the arc.
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Use the big brass elevation adjuster to get your polar mount to the correct angle. As others have said, the stand needs to be fastened down and pole to be dead plumb else it isn't going to work properly. I attach a picture of my dish on 1W the only difference is I use a a second jack for inclined orbit tracking.20250611_120917.webp
 
If @marcouk is near Hull - the latitude will be practically the same as me here in the north west according to the dish pointer site .... i use just over 54 elevation on my C.M polarmount ...
also it depends which way you set the angle finder ... just over 54 or just over 35 as as -A33 stated .... see pics taken from my polar mount this morning
I will put a straight edge to the dish later to measure how far back my dish leans when looking at 1 West ... yours looks to be maybe leaning a fraction too far back on your pics
 

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nelson_b said:
If @marcouk is near Hull - the latitude will be practically the same as me here in the north west according to the dish pointer site .... i use just over 54 elevation on my C.M polarmount ...
also it depends which way you set the angle finder ... just over 54 or just over 35 as as -A33 stated .... see pics taken from my polar mount this morning
I will put a straight edge to the dish later to measure how far back my dish leans when looking at 1 West ... yours looks to be maybe leaning a fraction too far back on your pics
Click to expand...

In (or near) Hull, the surface of the dish at true south would be close on dead vertical. if a latitude of 53.5 degrees is correct.
 
marcouk said:
Hi guys

I have finally got around to installing the Raven 1.8 motorised dish kit I bought last October but have run in to a bit of a snag (no instructions)
I've searched the web high and low but can only find instructions for the fixed version.
That helped a bit but its the settings for the polar mount that I really need as I just cant get it to follow the whole arc correctly.
moving the dish about by either hand or motor I can get from 30east to 34 west (and all in between ) with really impressive signal levels but not all in one go.
after trying again today (in between downpours) I can get from 28 east to 30 west both ends have poor signals 60/70 % 1 west is great (100% on most) with most in between either 70/80% (Astra 1and 3 and Hotbird) ,26 east 0% (had up to 80/5) 7w 60% had up to 75% on some channels, 8west 58% had 70 % on some, 14west 83% 22 west 80% had 100% on reuters at 1 point and finally 30 west around 70%.

Looking at the dish now its been setup the long thread/bolt on the polar mount looks way too high for my location Hull East Yorkshire Lat 53.7943° Lon -0.3261°
hence why I am looking for the polar mount instructions.

Cheers in advance for any help/suggestions.

Mark
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have you got an inclinometer? a few examples already posted above. Set the elevation on the mount to you latitude 53.7 hull? drop the pin on your dish location from dishpointer if you want it bob on. set the actuator so the dish is aligned on 0 degrees. put the inclinometer on a horizontal part of the mount until thats bob on. You have a rough idea of 1.0w's location just a matter of adjusting the dish elevation with a bit of trail and error. A prime focus dish would be set to 28.6 so tip it down until you find peak signal.
 
itchybag said:
have you got an inclinometer? a few examples already posted above. Set the elevation on the mount to you latitude 53.7 hull? drop the pin on your dish location from dishpointer if you want it bob on. set the actuator so the dish is aligned on 0 degrees. put the inclinometer on a horizontal part of the mount until thats bob on. You have a rough idea of 1.0w's location just a matter of adjusting the dish elevation with a bit of trail and error. A prime focus dish would be set to 28.6 so tip it down until you find peak signal.
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Update

Hi guys
Well what a frustrating day..
a friend who was an installer came over and spent a couple of hours fiddling with the dish and mount to see what could be done.
I now have strong 30e and 30w and most in-between very strong but am really struggling to get 26 east 7 and 8 west.
the best I can get on some of the weaker channels on 7 west is around 9 db which means I will lost them at the first sign of bad weather which was one of the main reasons I bought the 1.8 dish in the first place.

I have checked and rechecked the pole and mount and it is dead plumb.
checked the mount angle with an app called cinclinometer and it says 35.5 so Im happy with that.
The only thing I can think of now is the lnb holder setup which is Sat SS own version, it seems to be unnecessarily complex with way too many nuts and other settings.
after my friend had gone I tried readjusting the lnb setup and got i noticeable improvement in the signals from 26 east and 7 west but not to the levels that I got when I first set it up.

If its not not too much trouble could people send tell me what their signal levels are on 7 west and 26 east? (ideally with a similar size dish)
so I can compere with mine as I find it hard to believe that a 1.8 CM cannot get better signals from these sats then my old 1 metre lenson heath used to.

Cheers
Mark
 
Just to answer a few points from earlier post.
a33 the mount it securely bolted in to industrial concrete (I don't think it shows up too well in the photo) it uses 12 bolts and wont move no matter what pressure I put on it.
The concrete base is almost level but after some fine adjustments to the main mount it is now completely plumb.
the blue thing in the photo is just a piece of sticky tape that I put on as a marker during the early stages of setup the mount is secured by a shim (see attached image) and does not seem to have any give in it and seems to be plumb but I am not 100% sure about this.
the inclination is now set to 35.3 (the photo was taken before this adjustment was made)
thanks everyone for your help with this it is much appreciated.

Mark
 

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marcouk said:
Update

Hi guys
Well what a frustrating day..
a friend who was an installer came over and spent a couple of hours fiddling with the dish and mount to see what could be done.
I now have strong 30e and 30w and most in-between very strong but am really struggling to get 26 east 7 and 8 west.
the best I can get on some of the weaker channels on 7 west is around 9 db which means I will lost them at the first sign of bad weather which was one of the main reasons I bought the 1.8 dish in the first place.

I have checked and rechecked the pole and mount and it is dead plumb.
checked the mount angle with an app called cinclinometer and it says 35.5 so Im happy with that.
The only thing I can think of now is the lnb holder setup which is Sat SS own version, it seems to be unnecessarily complex with way too many nuts and other settings.
after my friend had gone I tried readjusting the lnb setup and got i noticeable improvement in the signals from 26 east and 7 west but not to the levels that I got when I first set it up.

If its not not too much trouble could people send tell me what their signal levels are on 7 west and 26 east? (ideally with a similar size dish)
so I can compere with mine as I find it hard to believe that a 1.8 CM cannot get better signals from these sats then my old 1 metre lenson heath used to.

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...
Mena beam will always be a struggle.. I get some of the bein channels on a 1.5 but zero margin for bad weather.
 
marcouk said:
Update

Hi guys
Well what a frustrating day..
a friend who was an installer came over and spent a couple of hours fiddling with the dish and mount to see what could be done.
I now have strong 30e and 30w and most in-between very strong but am really struggling to get 26 east 7 and 8 west.
the best I can get on some of the weaker channels on 7 west is around 9 db which means I will lost them at the first sign of bad weather which was one of the main reasons I bought the 1.8 dish in the first place.

I have checked and rechecked the pole and mount and it is dead plumb.
checked the mount angle with an app called cinclinometer and it says 35.5 so Im happy with that.
The only thing I can think of now is the lnb holder setup which is Sat SS own version, it seems to be unnecessarily complex with way too many nuts and other settings.
after my friend had gone I tried readjusting the lnb setup and got i noticeable improvement in the signals from 26 east and 7 west but not to the levels that I got when I first set it up.

If its not not too much trouble could people send tell me what their signal levels are on 7 west and 26 east? (ideally with a similar size dish)
so I can compere with mine as I find it hard to believe that a 1.8 CM cannot get better signals from these sats then my old 1 metre lenson heath used to.

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...
Do you have the genuine CM feed clamp anywhere (regardless of condition) ?
 
marcouk said:
I now have strong 30e and 30w and most in-between very strong but am really struggling to get 26 east 7 and 8 west.
Click to expand...

Checked the exact position of the LNB phase center?
See @RimaNTSS picture:
RimaNTSS

Help Required Post in thread 'CM 2.4 m dimensions'

Updated my collage with depth. Measurements should be taken at the very middle of the dish.
Edited: I have changed the picture for the most updated one as of 16th August 2021.
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NB I would aim a bit higher than the G-spot: towards the deepest point of the dish.

Greetz,
A33
 
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